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August 13, 2017

MMRDA, jail officials face off over installation of cutters

<!– /11440465/Dna_Article_Middle_300x250_BTF –>While the Mumbai Metropolitan Region Development Authority (MMRDA) readies itself to make the second phase of the monorail between Wadala and Jacob Circle operational by this year end, the long stand-off between jail authorities at Arthur Road jail and MMRDA does not seem to end.The jail authorities have said that the MMRDA has not installed steel ‘view cutters’ to block the view of the jail premises on the monorail route. Senior MMRDA officials, however, maintain that they had written to jail authorities and the home department expressing the inability to install the view cutters.The MMRDA has been contending that monorail takes only 15 seconds to pass through the prison premises and the idea of installing steel view cutters is not feasible technically and financially.”There has been no reply and hence it is anticipated that installation of steel view cutters is an issue,” a senior MMRDA official said.However, when contacted, Arthur Road jail superintendent, Harshad Ahirrao, told DNA, “Authorities want the cutters to be installed and the MMRDA had given us in writing that they are bound to install these cutters.”The idea behind the cutters is to block the view of the jail premises so that anti-social elements do not plan any kind of attack on the monorail.Jail authorities insist that the MMRDA has to install steel view cutters, as that is the base on which the Maharashtra home department had, in 2010, granted permission for construction along the Sane Guruji Marg near Arthur Road jail.